Some 9,000 square meters of burning warehouse’s roof collapses

The roof of a burning warehouse in Russia’s second largest city of St. Petersburg collapsed at an area of around 9,000 square meters, the deputy head of the city’s emergencies ministry department, Igor Titenok, told TASS on Wednesday, Qazet.az reports.

"A roof collapse at an area of 9,000 square meters has occurred," he said.

The official said the firefighting effort is complicated by the fact that the nearest water sources are located at the distance of between 1 and 1.5 kilometers, and so the fire was spreading rapidly at the very beginning.

"The blaze was reported to firefighters too late, because by the time the first crew arrived, the fire has already engulfed the area of 1,000 square meters," Titenok said, adding that no casualties have been reported.

The fire broke out late on Tuesday and was initially said to engulf the area of 1,000 square meters of the 24,000-square-meter warehouse. Later, the area of the fire grew to 6,000 square meters and then doubled to about 12,000 square meters. A firefighting train is used in the effort to tackle the blaze.

A total of 160 firefighters and 45 items of special equipment are also involved, the Russian emergencies ministry’s press service told TASS on Wednesday. Emergencies sources earlier told TASS a section of the building’s outer wall had collapsed.